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Of Symbols and Harmony

I’ve been surfing sites, books, mags and TV a lot lately and often i can see a theme built into what I discover. From diverse sources, a few distilled ramblings…

I have a spirituality by which I live my life and as you might imagine, it’s not a culturally traditional one. But more and more, the reality is that most of us have a belief system that would be described this way. In fact, it would be difficult to meet very many people that have not developed their own version of spirituality. Most of us have found some comfortable ground between our heritage system and ‘reality as we know it’. That being said, we all still take ‘our’ basic truths very seriously.

At first, it may seem that I am taking the following quote out of context as it refers to Magic, but the original meaning of this word is really about creativity and I encourage you to interpret it this way as well. Read on and you’ll see what I mean.

And since Magic has traditionally been understood to be a harmonization of our inner reality and the invisible forces that control the flow and rhythm of our outer reality, the key is to learn the symbols that gravitate towards you and stop to think what you are meant to do once those symbols harmonize on the interior and exterior expressions of your life. – C.L. Knowles

Pure and simple, that’s what we are all trying to do, isn’t it?

Most of the time, it’s a subconscious flow. Could be a help-wanted ad worded ‘just so’ in a newspaper, could be a glance from your neighbor across the street, the way your

Tribal Symbol (Photo credit: gem66)

car’s engine sounds today, a conversation you have, a dream, a church bell ringing at an unusual time. Sometimes, it’s a profound experience that our mind consciously sees obvious connections to make from; sometimes it’s an uncomfortable yet fascinating conundrum that instinct tells us has meaning but it’s just not visible without further thought. We interpret the actions and words of others symbolically 24/7. We send out our own actions and words intending symbolic significances for each of them, whether they are received with those meanings or not.

I subscribe to the basic concepts of mythicism, a purely intellectual and fact-rooted view on archetype energies. Yet, that makes what I experience and what I anchor to no less meaningful to me as a being who also thinks it’s pretty clear that spirituality (or something just about equivalent) seems to be an intrinsic part of survival in our DNA and thus something to be fed, supported, encouraged and even celebrated. It has real power and that is a fact, from where I stand. It occurred to me while the elections were running that so many people were simply unable to meet others symbolically in the middle. Everyone just kept chucking symbols at each other knowing full well that those symbols were indecipherable or distasteful to the receivers. The desire for connection was absent with leave.

There are times in these posts where I may be ‘sending symbology’ at you that somehow appears to diminish your own and I want to take this moment to make it clear that that is never my intention. In fact, the purpose of this space is to give all of these symbols some air and light; to reflect on how they came to be and to have a powerful energy for us. Your archetypes are your spirituality and they are significant.

Survival also dictates that all of us check in on our archetypes to make sure they are still appropriately functioning. No one can do this for you although many of us allow this to happen. I think it’s safe to attempt a generalised definition on the universal goal for the individual as having these components:

– to feel a sense of worth and place within their unit

– to feel that their actions have an acceptable purposefulness

– that personal gains are made according to the ethics of the unit

– that the unit is harmoniously aligned with neighboring units

This, in turn, equates to self-worth. When things don’t jive in one of these areas, we step back and analyse. We have to. Our sense of survival is jarred. And this is no news flash: it’s gonna happen sometimes in the course of a life or the collective life of a unit.

So the key -to survival, to self-worth – must be in the parameters we set for our analysis. Are they, first of all, based in a desire for harmony? If not, I think it might just be a doomed effort. The implication is that there will be a loss too great from the engagement. If we are a herd/team species, this is significant. On the spot analysis, if rusty from lack of regular dynamic exercise, will be anemic and blatantly biased. Can we all agree on this?

So perhaps a better starting point is analysing what harmony means to us personally

and why. Really digging in deep about who we are and why we are ‘who’ we are; how we came to be this ‘who’ and the value-exchange – the sense ofharmony – it grants OR costs us. Becoming genuinely self-grasped can take some time. Definitely, we have to feel that it is worth our time, perhaps before the next jarring… A plus to this self-securing venture is the ability to grant others the right to their own self-security. And right there is an outer harmoniser: I want to feel self-secure so you must want to feel that way, too.

With just a little objectivity, we will see plainly that some of our cherished beliefs and thoughts are inherited and/or they might not be factually or ‘truthfully’ based but they give comfort. And we aren’t happy to give up that comfort when the symbol-thinking within ourselves and/or in reality leads us into a briar patch. The idea kicks in that the path must be taken, painful or not, for the sake of the belief; part of the price of the comfort is to sometimes walk a rocky patch. That may very well be true. But I also suggest that very often it probably isn’t. Either way, we can see another common harmonic: we are all programmed to endure sacrifice for our sentiments. If you and I must compromise, we are both feeling a sacrifice; no one is ‘getting one over’ on the other.

I have been compelled to go through these processes often over the last couple of weeks. I catch myself flinching or reacting defensively and I know from experience that these triggers are little yellow flags calling for some inner soul searching and refining.

Photo credit: Wikipedia

I am also coming across great thinkers and believers in the arenas of religion, politics, medicine and education that are WIDE OPEN to the process that leads to the kind of harmony Knowles refers to. Even though I know it’s going to move at what will feel like a snail’s pace, I am really excited about it. These people are getting it. They are actively self – and other-dialoguing, sorting through their baggage and tossing the inessentials, pressing and refolding their ‘keepers’ realizing that the energies activating them do not live and die by the acceptance of others. They are gearing up for some sincere unit-to-unit analysis on issues that effect all of us in some way or another.

My head is overly full these days. It seems to be the case for a lot of us. I have a lot to process, a lot to say but it’s not organising itself so well. The above, however, I am happily offering in its rough state for collective thought.